Second Delay For State's Medicaid Managed Care Program

The Department of Health and Human Services is delaying part of New Hampshire’s Medicaid Managed Care program.

Transferring New Hampshire’s Medicaid program to so called managed care is a huge, sprawling puzzle. The idea is for private insurance companies to take over the state program that provides health insurance for low income residents. And the trickiest part will be transferring the care of the sickest residents – people with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injuries.

The state Department of Health and Human Services now says that last piece will transition in September of 2015.

Deputy Commissioner Marilee Nihan says the delay comes in response to public concern about interruptions of care, and how services will be paid for.

"We have all along said that we will integrate these services when the system is ready for it," says Nihan.

Still in the balance are non-medical services for people with development delays. Now word yet on when those will be handed from the state to managed care.

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said the state will wait until April before it puts Medicaid patients with chronic conditions under the oversight of two managed care companies. In fact the state has not announced when that transition will happen.

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A new data set gives a bird’s eye view of New Hampshire’s uninsured residents – and how they stand to gain health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

The data itself is not shocking. State health officials and insurers alike know New Hampshire’s most rural communities have the highest rates of uninsured. But this is the first time that information has been aggregated into a map that viewers can navigate on a county-by-county basis.